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I was taught to always keep the glory hole at 2200 degrees, but a workshop in Flagstaff showed me that's wrong.
For years, I worked with that high heat, thinking it gave me more control. Then I saw a demo by a guy named Carl who kept his at 2050. My pieces stopped cracking at the punty mark. Has anyone else found a lower temp works better for certain colors?
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caleb_thomas856mo ago
Carl’s demo probably saved you a ton of grief. That high heat can shock some colors from the inside out, especially the dense ones with a lot of metal in them. Running cooler lets the whole piece settle more evenly. It’s not just about the punty mark, it’s about the whole piece surviving the annealer without stress. I had the same issue with some dark ambers until I dropped my temp down.
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walker.cole6mo ago
Yeah, that bit about the dense colors with a lot of metal is so true... I was getting cracks in some dark reds until I did exactly what @caleb_thomas85 said and lowered my annealer by a solid 25 degrees. Letting it all cool down slower just stopped the stress from building up inside.
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casey_harris6mo ago
Remember reading about that exact problem in an old forum post years back. Totally saved a batch of my own dark blues that kept failing at the punty. Started ramping down way slower and keeping the kiln at the low end of the range for that color. The difference was night and day, pieces just stopped cracking. It really is all about giving the inside time to catch up with the outside.
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